FDA staffers sue agency over surveillance of personal e-mail

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fda-staffers-sue-ag=
ency-over-surveillance-of-personal-e-mail/2012/01/23/gIQAj34DbQ_story.htm=
l

By Ellen Nakashima and Lisa Rein
The Washington Post
January 29, 2012

The Food and Drug Administration secretly monitored the personal e-mail=20
of a group of its own scientists and doctors after they warned Congress=20
that the agency was approving medical devices that they believed posed=20
unacceptable risks to patients, government documents show.

The surveillance =E2=80=94 detailed in e-mails and memos unearthed by six=
 of the=20
scientists and doctors, who filed a lawsuit against the FDA in U.S.=20
District Court in Washington last week =E2=80=94 took place over two year=
s as=20
the plaintiffs accessed their personal Gmail accounts from government=20
computers.

Information garnered this way eventually contributed to the harassment=20
or dismissal of all six of the FDA employees, the suit alleges. All had=20
worked in an office responsible for reviewing devices for cancer=20
screening and other purposes.

Copies of the e-mails show that, starting in January 2009, the FDA=20
intercepted communications with congressional staffers and draft=20
versions of whistleblower complaints complete with editing notes in the=20
margins. The agency also took electronic snapshots of the computer=20
desktops of the FDA employees and reviewed documents they saved on the=20
hard drives of their government computers.

[...]


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